We have arrived at championship season in the NVL. Expect chaos. Rainouts, postponements and the inability to complete the regular season on time has created another tournament migraine.

What's wrong this time? The championship baseball tournament was scheduled to begin Saturday, but washouts have left Seymour, the current top seed, with two regular season games to play, and both have tourney implications. The Wildcats play Ansonia today and then Woodland next week on Tuesday.

Tuesday? Did someone say Tuesday? We should have been through the semis by then.

And what happens if today's games are postponed? The NVL athletic directors, some of whom meet today to figure this out, will face agonizing decisions.

"We will hit the reset button and review where we are," Carroll said.

Let's hope they don't hit the delete button by mistake.

Softball faces similar questions. Softball is set to begin Saturday. That is, if games are not postponed today. The outcome of today's St. Paul-Watertown game affects tourney seedings. If the game is not played, the tourney will begin ... actually, no one knows that either.

The NVL girls tennis tournament does not have a confirmed schedule. Today's Watertown-Woodland quarterfinal match was postponed. It is prom night at Woodland, and that means the girls team matches could run up against individual tournament matches set for Tuesday.

There is a word for this, but I'd rather not use it.

But wait, here's a thought: Let's play Monday? The long-range weather forecast is wet and dreary, except for one day, Monday, Memorial Day.

Oops, Monday is a no-go, too.

See NVL, Page 10B

The NVL was roundly criticized when it scheduled tournament games on Memorial Day. I was taken aback myself, but the athletic directors approved it and so did NVL principals.

But Memorial Day is out for one reason: Seymour won't permit its athletes to compete on a federal holiday. It is a Board of Education policy.

Let the record show that Seymour has played many, many games on federal holidays. Just three months ago, Seymour played a girls basketball game on Presidents Day. No objections were raised when the CIAC scheduled Seymour to play past tournament games on Veterans Day.

NVL tournament events on Memorial Day, however, are not allowed.

There are many scheduling limitations. Carroll notes that the NVL parochial schools do not want to play Sunday games, though they have. Carroll's own Sacred Heart boys basketball team won a state championship recently on a Sunday.

"We will respect everyone's policies," Carroll said. "We do the best we can within the framework we are given. As a group, we try to put athletes in the best possible situation."

A mash-up of tournament games isn't anyone's definition of a "best possible situation," or the best way to decide a championship. Teams compete for six weeks to earn a favorable seed, only to play, as Seymour baseball might do next week, four games in four days. And then, days later, the state tournament begins.

In retrospect, the plan to play on Memorial Day really was a good idea, but since when do need good ideas in the Valley?

The topic is moot, of course, if sunshine suddenly bursts through the clouds, and we have nice weather today and next week. But remember, this is the NVL, the place where dark clouds and downpours hang out in late May.

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